Everyone seems to like pizza, whether we eat it out at a restaurant or make it at home with family and friends.

Italian in origin, the taste of that bread-like crust covered with a seasoned tomato sauce, cheese and other toppings is irresistible to most of us.

Early forms of pizza were most likely what we call “focaccia” today, since tomatoes didn’t become part of the Italian landscape until the 16th century. No tomato sauce, no pizza pie. The addition of mozzarella cheese didn’t come about until the late 19th century.

Invented in the 1940s in Ithaca, N.Y., by Bob Baker, a professor of food science at Cornell University, Cornell Chicken is crispy-skinned grilled chicken basted with a white vinegar-based barbecue sauce that has been a favorite across Western New York for many years.

Baker was a specialist in poultry and was also credited with helping to invent chicken nuggets.

Would you like to have an all-purpose sauce that you can mix with pasta, shrimp, chicken or vegetables, either before or after they are cooked, much like you would a pesto? Even use it as a dipping sauce for meats and veggies?

Romesco sauce is a classic and popular Spanish condiment, a spicy almond and red pepper pesto-like mixture. It can be used on everything from grilled fish and meats to cold vegetable salads.

etting down the technique of indirect heat is the difference between grilling and burning your ribs. When it comes to barbecue sauce, don’t even think about it until the last 15 or 20 minutes of cooking. Then, think about it constantly.

When finishing ribs with sauce, coat one side of the ribs with sauce, flip them over, coat the other side and then flip them over again. Repeat the basting process at least three or four times during the final minutes of cooking to ensure the ribs are well coated with sauce and evenly caramelized…not burned.